1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the field of online commerce. More particularly, the invention relates to rating systems and user feedback mechanisms for use in electronic environments, e.g., online trading environment, online shopping site, online auctioning site, online person-to-person trading site, online gaming site or other electronic environment where user feedback is provided, including those within an Internet market place community.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Internet and the World Wide Web (“Web”) have changed the landscape of information delivery and affected numerous aspects of life, including commerce and entertainment. One area that has benefited from this technological development is the ability of individuals to buy and sell products within an Internet marketplace community.
Many companies operate auctions and other selling mechanisms on servers connected to the users over one or more networks, typically including the Internet. The users buying and/or selling items over these networks loosely comprise a market place community within an electronic environment. A distinction between non-electronic selling devices such as traditional garage sales and current electronic selling mechanisms is the component of anonymity inherent in electronic environment, which is not always conducive to forming a trusting environment in which two or more users wish to form a buyer-seller relationship.
To overcome some reservations about the anonymity component within the electronic marketplace community and to provide incentives for participating in transactions within the electronic marketplaces, Internet marketplaces, such as auction sites run by eBay, Inc. of San Jose, Calif. provide feedback ratings generated from feedback between users regarding trading transactions. A user's feedback rating is an indication of the user's reputation within the electronic community, and provides some indication of the trustworthiness and responsiveness of the user. A representation of a user's feedback rating is typically displayed along with a buying or selling transaction request by the user which provides the other party to the transaction an indication of the trustworthiness or past participation level of the user.
One implementation of feedback rating is illustrated in FIG. 1, in which feedback ratings 131-137 have been respectively established for marketplace users 121-127 based on votes 110 received from other users. These votes could reflect a positive recommendation and add one or more points to a user's feedback rate; or could reflect a negative experience and subtract one or more points from a user's feedback rating.
Feedback ratings provide a good mechanism for indicating a level of indicating a user's trustworthiness or past participation within an electronic commerce forum. Users desire to increase their feedback ratings because they are one indication of a user's reputation in the electronic community and some marketplace providers give awards or identify the users whose feedback ratings have reached a certain value, or some number of users with the highest feedback ratings.
However, feedback ratings do not provide a direct incentive for expanding the electronic marketplace. Needed is a new mechanism to provide an incentive for bringing new users into the electronic community.